We are Spoiled on Quality TV. Let Yourself Enjoy a Shitty Show!

It’s been a long and slow process, but I think “TV shows” are a horse of a different color these days, With quality TV like Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, and the Walking Dead, my husband and I find ourselves… well, spoiled, if we’re being honest. Long are the days where we find ourselves watching shows and willfully ignoring blatant plot holes or bad acting. We simply don’t have to do that anymore.

Out of this spoiling we’ve found ourselves in a desperate need.

We need shitty shows to laugh at. We need a show that we can watch in the background that will not suck us in. And I’m not talking reality TV. That wouldn’t satisfy the void we’d been experiencing. We need more than mindless drivel. So we began our search for a summary on Netflix that would make us better appreciate our “good” shows. We sought out the most absurd synopsis we could find. And let me tell you what our search gave us. No one, but two absolute gems that are absolute, unadulterated fun.

My husband read a review once of the movie Shoot ‘Em Up from Robert Ebert (here) that made him belly laugh and he has taken one line from this review and quoted it whenever we find a show that fits this bill. The quote is:

“I may disapprove of a movie for going too far, and yet have a sneaky regard for a movie that goes much, much farther than merely too far.”

It was pretty easy to fix once I realized I had a problem, honestly. I don’t want a show with just bad acting; I want a show with terrible acting. It should entertain me by the utter terribleness of the script. I want to awe in the plot holes and be overwhelmed by the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Maybe it’s the mean people inside. But it’s a need my hubby and I share so I’m fine with whatever the motivation.

So the first summary we stumbled on that piqued our interest was

The outcast descendant of lawman Wyatt Earp teams up with an immortal Doc Holliday to rid the world of demonic revenants from the Wild West.

Um… What? No, but… WHAT? Ladies and gents,

Wynonna Earp

Oh, God, it’s glorious. It is the perfect trifecta of bad shows. The plot is pretty terrible, the acting sure as hell is, and the writing? Oh, sweet baby Jesus, it’s soooooo bad. IT. IS. GLORIOUS. It’s like watching a train wreck. Each episode is a gem of “what the hell is going on?” The best part of this isn’t that Doc Holliday is an immortal who helps his best friend’s great great granddaughter kill the same bad guys that (apparently) Supernatural Slayer Wyatt Earp killed. Oh no. It’s that this train wreck is still being made. So we get to wait with baited breathe as they film another season. Oh, Lord, please make every additional season the same kind of crazy.

Our second terrible show is pretty frickin’ ridiculous in it’s premise.

Inside each of the Johnson brothers beats the heart of a Norse god. But they can’t fulfill their destinies until brother Axl finds his soul mate.

The Almighty Johnsons

I have to be honest, the acting really isn’t all that bad. At least not all the characters. There are some genuine actors, here. Or… maybe I just got sucked in. That’s a strong possibility, too. But ya know that says something on it’s own, too. The actors really aren’t all that dreamy so the gratuitous nekkidness isn’t the lure. It’s the utter absurdity that makes my weird little heart smile. And the finale tied it off with a nice bow, so there’s that, too.

But even if you don’t like my picks for fun, terrible shows, do yourself a favor and still seek one out. Find a guilty pleasure show that lets you laugh at it as much as with it. Don’t be spoiled. The more spoiled you are, the less you’ll enjoy. Not everything can be exceptional. And if you only enjoy the exceptional… then you’ll spend a lot more time not enjoying things. The whole point of life is to enjoy it. Find what will cleanse your palate to get you ready for another season of something amazing.